1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to balancing apparatus and methods and, more particularly, relates to tire balancing apparatus and methods for balancing tires for automobiles, trucks, etc.
2. Background of the Prior Art
In the past, various techniques have been developed for balancing objects such as tires for cars, trucks, etc. This form of technology in the balancing of tires, which is extremely critical from both a safety and comfort point of view, started out with relatively simple wheel-balancing apparatus and methods and, as these become inadequate to effectively and properly balance tires, especially large, heavy truck type tires, this balancing technology became much more sophisticated and complex mechanisms such as spin-balancing equipment were developed in an attempt to balance tires.
In the art of balancing tires it has been discovered that it is much easier to accurately balance smaller tires such as for use on passenger cars than to balance larger tires for use on trucks, buses, etc. One reason for this is that the tires for use on passenger cars do not receive the same amount of stress, strain and forces that are placed on truck tires which are supporting much greater weights or loads. Thus the necessity for achieving an optimum balance on a passenger tire is much less than it is for larger tires for use on trucks, buses and the like. Accordingly, truck type tires, for example, must be very carefully balanced to avoid the dangerous and uncomfortable shimmying and vibration action that occurs when large trucks having unbalanced or improperly balanced tires are going at speeds close to 50 miles an hour. Heretofore, it has been very difficult to very accurately balance truck type tires on a continuous basis so that they can be used without shimmying or vibrating at speeds of approximately 50 miles an hour.
Accordingly, a need existed to develop a simple, reliable, efficient and rapid technique for balancing objects such as automobile and truck tires.